Monitoring of quality and stability characteristics and fatty acid compositions of refined olive and seed oils during repeated pan- and deep-frying using GC, FT-NIRS, and chemometrics.

Refined olive, corn, soybean, and sunflower oils were used as cooking oils for deep-frying at two different temperatures, 160 and 190 °C, and for pan-frying of potatoes at 180 °C for 10 successive sessions under the usual domestic practice. Several chemical parameters were assayed during frying operations to evaluate the status of the frying oils. Refined olive oil, as frying oil, was found to be more stable than the refined seed oils. In fact, this oil has proven the greatest resistance to oxidative deterioration, and its trans-fatty acid contents and percentages of total polar compounds were found to be lower at 160 °C during deep-frying. Finally, chemometric analysis has demonstrated that the lowest deterioration of the quality of all refined oils occurred in the refined olive oil during deep-frying at 160 °C and the highest deterioration occurred in the refined sunflower oil during pan-frying at 180 °C.